Silver Elite: Chapter 47
Nov. 25th, 2025 04:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaCross briefs Wren and her fellow soldiers on their way to the mission.
A solo jet has crashed near a weapons depot, and the pilot has escaped. So now Silver Block has been sent in to hunt him down and assess the situation. It's a decommissioned weapons depot, so it's not clear if the Uprising was acting on false information.
This is information Wren could get easily by using her powers, so I'm curious to see if she'll link with Adrienne or Declan and ask.
The other team tracks bloody footprints into the depot.
You know what I've just realized? Wren never has the desire or the urge to use her powers in situations like this. There have been very few times in this book she's wanted to use them, even though she doesn't have glowy veins and can theoretically get away with it. She used them to link with Tana, she wanted to link with that one Mod who came to test their shields, she linked with Cross when they confessed to each other...I think that's it.
Just another way in which the specifics of Wren's character never get explored.
And it's not like Wren has had any significant interactions with half the people killed just now. Only Kaine was relevant and only because he was the red herring love interest.
Cross asks Wren telepathically if she knew about this. She tells him no, of course not.
See, this is supposed to be the moment in the book where it all comes to a head and Wren has to choose between two sides, but there's not actually a choice. The book has spent very little time on the Uprising and too much time humanizing the Command, so there's no doubt in my mind that Wren will pick them. And in a better book that would make her the villain and this book would be a tragedy, but this book treats the dystopia it's set in like window dressing. This book has nothing to actually say about those things, no commentary worth reading to make about it any of it.
Next scene. It's the funeral.
Oh, here's another weird thing:
Lyddie, who’s clutching my hand like it’s a life preserver, told me that the General doesn’t like “emotional fanfare” with his funerals.
A lot of things in this book are explained as being the General's personal preference, which just feels...weird. Like, is this because it's a military funeral and normal funerals aren't like this? Or is it that in this society funerals are meant to be without fanfare? If it's the matter, Lyddie shouldn't have to explain it to Wren, and if this is a difference that Wren is discovering between her former society and her new one, then she should just say that, instead of having it come from Lyddie.
It feels like Francis assumes that every bad thing in her dystopia is caused by the General specifically, which makes it seem like she doesn't understand how institutions work.
We learn that at military funerals, the Company flag is slashed almost in half. Wren broods because Cross won't speak to her, because he thinks she was involved with the bombing. But Wren wasn't involved, and in fact fought with Adrienne about it. Adrienne rightfully told Wren her involvement wasn't needed, and considering Wren's track record, I don't blame her.
Wren then tries to follow Cross, but again conveniently gets to eavesdrop on a conversation Cross is having with Travis, where Travis is mad at Cross because one of the soldiers killed in the ambush was the son of someone politically important. Cross tells his brother their father will never hand over the reins to either of them. I mean, Cross, your dad isn't immortal. He will eventually die.
Chapter end.
This is probably the most pathetic rendition of enemies to lovers that I have ever seen.
Neither Wren nor Cross appear to have any actual principles that would come between them. Cross thinks that he does the most good by not personally ordering people to be killed, which is only good if he ignores all the evil people around him are constantly doing. And Wren literally only cares about herself. She has done exactly one thing for the Uprising so far, and it involved nothing more taxing than looking at a screen. All her actions are about her enjoyment, her ego. She is more upset about the deaths of three soldiers, only one of whom she could call a friend, than she is about her own friends in labor camps or the basement full of Modified people being used for human experimentation.
I can't tell if the author was deliberately trying to write pro-fascist propaganda or if she's just wildly incompetent. Maybe both?
A solo jet has crashed near a weapons depot, and the pilot has escaped. So now Silver Block has been sent in to hunt him down and assess the situation. It's a decommissioned weapons depot, so it's not clear if the Uprising was acting on false information.
This is information Wren could get easily by using her powers, so I'm curious to see if she'll link with Adrienne or Declan and ask.
Once we’re on the ground, we split into two teams. One to investigate the plane, the other to secure the perimeter of the depot. I’m with Cross and Xavier again, delving into the forest in search of the fighter jet.
Something feels…off. I wonder if the guys agree, but I don’t ask them as we move through the darkness. I smell the smoke when we’re about half a mile out. Jet fuel.
As we near the crash site, a knot of foreboding tightens in my stomach.
“Keep your eyes open,” Cross murmurs. “We don’t know what we’re walking into."
The other team tracks bloody footprints into the depot.
Tyler returns, her unease unmistakable. “Captain, something’s not right here—”Wren tries to run into the burning building, even though her instincts warn her not to, and gets immediately pulled back by Cross, just in time to avoid a second explosion.
An explosion goes off in the distance.
I hear it in my ear, too, just a split second of deafening thunder before the feed cuts and the silence returns. I’m already on my feet. Cross and Xavier come running.
“Dixie!” Xavier shouts. “Come in.”
No response. The channel is completely silent, eerily so.
You know what I've just realized? Wren never has the desire or the urge to use her powers in situations like this. There have been very few times in this book she's wanted to use them, even though she doesn't have glowy veins and can theoretically get away with it. She used them to link with Tana, she wanted to link with that one Mod who came to test their shields, she linked with Cross when they confessed to each other...I think that's it.
Just another way in which the specifics of Wren's character never get explored.
The pieces of the puzzle click into place. They crashed their fighter on purpose. Their pilot was never inside the depot. He sprang the trap and then waited. Waited for us to go to the crash site, for Tyler’s team to investigate. They used the crash as a diversion, a smokescreen to cover their true objective, and while we were distracted by the chaos of the explosion, they stole one of our most advanced bomber jets.It is genuinely pathetic that Wren is perfectly willing to become a member of a fascist military if said military contains, like, three people who are nice to her and one of them is willing to fuck her. This book opened with Wren's beloved uncle being executed by Command! It's one thing if she had been asked to kill Cross and was feeling torn about that specific order, but no, Wren's only moral principle is the one that guides the entire book: if people are nice to Wren, they're good, and if they're mean to Wren, they're bad.
Our?
Confusion fogs my brain. I realize I’m thinking of myself as part of the Command.
Their jet, I mean.
My people stole their jet.
But the lines are blurring. God, they’re blurring.
And it's not like Wren has had any significant interactions with half the people killed just now. Only Kaine was relevant and only because he was the red herring love interest.
Cross asks Wren telepathically if she knew about this. She tells him no, of course not.
“I promise you, Cross. I didn’t know. I would never, ever have led them into an ambush. Not Kaine.” Agony rips through me at the notion of never seeing Kaine’s impish grin again. “He’s my closest friend here.”
See, this is supposed to be the moment in the book where it all comes to a head and Wren has to choose between two sides, but there's not actually a choice. The book has spent very little time on the Uprising and too much time humanizing the Command, so there's no doubt in my mind that Wren will pick them. And in a better book that would make her the villain and this book would be a tragedy, but this book treats the dystopia it's set in like window dressing. This book has nothing to actually say about those things, no commentary worth reading to make about it any of it.
Next scene. It's the funeral.
Bonus! Tana and I would’ve shared a drink in the town square and toasted to their deaths.Hey, Wren, speaking of Tana, remember how she lost her entire life and is now in a labor camp because she's a Mod? Does that carry any weight with you? Are you going to be as sad about that as you are about Kaine dying? I bet not!
But Tana is not here.
And there’s nothing to celebrate.
The loss weighs heavily on me. I know he was the enemy…but he didn’t feel like it. I stare at Kaine’s portrait being projected from behind his casket, and my chest clenches with sorrow. My gaze shifts to Tyler’s image. That doesn’t make it better. I didn’t know her well yet, outside the context of instructor, but she was someone Xavier cared about.
Oh, here's another weird thing:
Lyddie, who’s clutching my hand like it’s a life preserver, told me that the General doesn’t like “emotional fanfare” with his funerals.
A lot of things in this book are explained as being the General's personal preference, which just feels...weird. Like, is this because it's a military funeral and normal funerals aren't like this? Or is it that in this society funerals are meant to be without fanfare? If it's the matter, Lyddie shouldn't have to explain it to Wren, and if this is a difference that Wren is discovering between her former society and her new one, then she should just say that, instead of having it come from Lyddie.
It feels like Francis assumes that every bad thing in her dystopia is caused by the General specifically, which makes it seem like she doesn't understand how institutions work.
We learn that at military funerals, the Company flag is slashed almost in half. Wren broods because Cross won't speak to her, because he thinks she was involved with the bombing. But Wren wasn't involved, and in fact fought with Adrienne about it. Adrienne rightfully told Wren her involvement wasn't needed, and considering Wren's track record, I don't blame her.
Wren then tries to follow Cross, but again conveniently gets to eavesdrop on a conversation Cross is having with Travis, where Travis is mad at Cross because one of the soldiers killed in the ambush was the son of someone politically important. Cross tells his brother their father will never hand over the reins to either of them. I mean, Cross, your dad isn't immortal. He will eventually die.
Chapter end.
This is probably the most pathetic rendition of enemies to lovers that I have ever seen.
Neither Wren nor Cross appear to have any actual principles that would come between them. Cross thinks that he does the most good by not personally ordering people to be killed, which is only good if he ignores all the evil people around him are constantly doing. And Wren literally only cares about herself. She has done exactly one thing for the Uprising so far, and it involved nothing more taxing than looking at a screen. All her actions are about her enjoyment, her ego. She is more upset about the deaths of three soldiers, only one of whom she could call a friend, than she is about her own friends in labor camps or the basement full of Modified people being used for human experimentation.
I can't tell if the author was deliberately trying to write pro-fascist propaganda or if she's just wildly incompetent. Maybe both?
